John 8: 19-27, Jesus' Father

In the temple courts, Jesus has said that he is the light of world, offering light out of the darkness. When the Pharisees dispute this, Jesus claims he is fulfilling the mission given him by the Father. The Pharisees pounce on that comment.

John 8: 19-20, Paternity questions
Then they asked him, “Where is your father?”

“You do not know me or my Father,” Jesus replied. “If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” 
20 He spoke these words while teaching in the temple courts near the place where the offerings were put. Yet no one seized him, because his hour had not yet come.

The religious leaders respond to Jesus's claims with a leer.  "Where is your father?" may be a reference to Jesus's birth to a woman pregnant before her marriage.

Jesus responds by assuring them that they do not know him or his father.  The gospel writer adds that even those these statements were public, in the temple courtyard, it was not yet time for the authorities to seize him. This visit to Jerusalem had begun with an issue of timing and that issue continues.

John 8: 21-27, I go away
Once more Jesus said to them, “I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come.”

22 This made the Jews ask, “Will he kill himself? Is that why he says, ‘Where I go, you cannot come’?”

23 But he continued, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 
24 I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am he, you will indeed die in your sins.”

25 “Who are you?” they asked.

“Just what I have been telling you from the beginning,” Jesus replied. 
26 “I have much to say in judgment of you. But he who sent me is trustworthy, and what I have heard from him I tell the world.”

27 They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father. 

Jesus will go away eventually and the leaders will have lost an opportunity to embrace the Messiah. Jesus means that he will eventually, after his death and resurrection, ascend to heaven, but this is missed, of course.  Jesus has to explain that he is from "above" (heaven) while they deny the very God they claim to worship.

Jesus continues to challenge the Jerusalem authorities, who rely on their Jewish ancestry for their righteousness. Jesus identifies himself as sent by God, who is trustworthy.  But they don't understand and wonder who it is that might have sent him to them!